Feldar was distracted from the conversation by his lightsaber. The electronic blade had a minor short in it after their crash into the swamp, and he was working to clean and dry the circuits before attempting to activate the weapon. If he turned it on, he might be electrocuted--but more likely, the power source would be drained, and he would have to recharge it before he could use his lightsaber again. He did not know when he would have access to the proper equipment for that, so ignoring the short circuit was unacceptable.

His keen ears were not idle, though, and his brain finally caught up with what Felicity and Certh were discussing. "It won't be easy," he added, "The Force connects with life, first and foremost, and on a swamp world like this, there's bound to be lots and lots of life. But I was always better at sensing things through the Force than I was at combat. I could give it a shot, I guess." Feldar did not quite feel as confident as he tried to assert, but if Felicity spent most of her lessons asleep, then he was already at an advantage. He did not know how well Certh might take to his Force senses, but Feldar wanted to help, and he could help more this way than he could in the middle of a battle.

Felicity and Certh looked at him with expressions that suggested he should not wait on their approbation. He smiled a little sheepishly, closed his eyes, and reached out to the Force. He was not wrong about his senses on Dagobah; the world swarmed with life, swirling around him like a tremendous vortex of Force energy, casting wave after wave across him, like a great ocean pummeling a single grain of sand on the shore. He scrunched up his face, grimacing with effort. He tried to organize the life, categorize it, cast away each piece of plant life, then insects, then fish and amphibians and lizards. He was looking specifically for sentient life, and based on what he had seen of the planet coming in, there wasn't any native to the world.

After a few minutes, he finally came into contact with some - unfortunately, they were powerful in their own right, and when he sensed them, he saw that they sensed him, too. He withdrew his connection as quickly as he could, but not before getting a direction. Opening his eyes, he said groggily, "They're southeast of here," and pointed shakily. "And I think they know we're here."

He was a little thrilled about the fact that Mahana had been one of the people that the Jedi Order had sent after them. Mahana had been punished the same way that he had, and her punishment had seemed worse, to him. He had been stripped of his lightsaber and sent to Sindria to work on the water project for the AgriCorps. That had been bad, but for Certh, it had been quiet solitude, for the most part. Only the temporary insertion of Ashin Varanin in his life had really bothered him.

But Mahana? Mahana had been stripped of her lightsaber and blasters and had been forced to work for the Jedi as an indentured servant of sorts, supervised the entire way. He had heard, through the HoloNews, that she had been at Brevost during the recovery process. It was difficult, being forced to go through your life, with nothing changed except for almost everything that defined who you were. He wasn’t sure how he would have been able to do that.

His solitude had been worth it, in some respects.

At least she was able to continue to climb her way back up the ranks of the Order so that she could be reinstated.

He was snapped out of his thoughts, when Feldar spoke.

Opening his eyes, he said groggily, “They're southeast of here," and pointed shakily. "And I think they know we're here."

“Well, it would be too much to hope for this day to get easier.” Certh said with a shrug.

“If they know we’re coming, we have no element of surprise.” Felicity said. “Our weapons aren’t exactly going to help us, in the swamp.” She said, looking at Feldar’s damaged lightsaber. “Any thoughts?” She asked.

“Letting ourselves get captured seems a bit too backwards, considering the effort we made to break free.” Certh said, as they continued to walk. He moved through the brush and the swamp, ignoring the muddy footprints that he left behind. “So that’s decidedly out.” He said.

“We could…” Felicity started and then stopped. “No, that wouldn’t work.” She said.

After some discussion it was eventually decided that the best thing to do was to follow them for now. So the three companions set off at a brisk pace in the direction Feldar had indicated with Felicity in the lead. She had only vague details on what exactly the bad guys were looking for here but she could feel in her gut a kind of dread that drove her forward. She moved urgently through the trees and the swamp, her pace quickening with each step. Poor Feldar was having trouble keeping up until eventually Certh called out to her.

"Don't you think you should slow down," he said, "We don't want to go stumbling right into them."

Felicity's pace did not slow. "I'm sorry, Certh, but we don't have--,"

She was interrupted suddenly when a huge lizard burst out of the water in front of her. She stared up and up and even further up at the monstrosity towering over her. "Time?" She finished sheepishly just before the huge dragonsnake lunged at her.

She dodged to the side narrowly avoiding the dragonsnake's teeth but the weight of its foot coming down on top of her drove her under the water.

"Felicity," Certh cried, running forward with his blaster rifle in hand. He fired a salvo of ruby darts at the dragonsnake's head, doing little to pierce the lizard's thick hide but temporarily blinding it and forcing the beast to rear up on its hind legs again. A moment or two later Felicity resurfaced coughing up swamp water from her lungs. Certh waded in up to his waist and grabbed the girl, dragging her back to solid ground.

The dragonsnake lunged at them again, throwing its body into Certh and knocking him aside. The blaster rifle flew from his grasp into the swamp and disappeared beneath the water. Felicity aimed her own blaster rifle at the beast and pulled the trigger. Instead of firing, however, the weapon sparked and malfunctioned, still wet from being dipped in the swamp. With nothing better to do she tossed the weapon aside and quickly backpedaled as the dragonsnake turned its gaze towards her once again.

"Certh, if we live through this you can say, 'I told you so,'" she said, "but right now I think we'd better run!"

In the moment of the dragonsnake's attack, Feldar forgot himself, and thumbed on his lightsaber. It sputtered and sparked, then went silent. Feldar cursed as the brief flash of light drew the attention of the monster. He latched the lightsaber onto his belt, then turned tail with Felicity and Certh. He put on all speed, but at his size, that wasn't saying much. Fear gave him impetus, but it also made him panicky. Lizards were natural predators for rodents, and one that dwarfed him by a factor of four was terrifying indeed.

The dragonsnake could be patient, but it was not prepared to lose its prey so easily. It lunged after them, throwing its arms out to grasp at them. One clawed hand nearly reached Felicity, and the other went for Feldar. The huge appendage wrapped itself around Feldar, knocking the wind from him as it pulled him back. He gasped in air, then water. As frightening as fighting a giant lizard had been, there was nothing more terrifying--to Feldar in particular, or to Chadra-Fan in general--than drowning. The great beast dragged him underwater, wrapping its tail and body around him in a cocoon of extreme pressure. His eyes were open, but the water obscured the light and the snake was almost the same temperature as the water, so he was just as blinded in the infrared range. He could hear nothing but the roar of water rushing in his ears. He was beyond panic; he would have been hyperventilating, if he had been able to breathe. Instead, he gulped down more of the slimy swamp-water.

It felt like he had been trapped for an eternity when his panic began to subside. His vision seemed to get even darker; the water stopped rushing, and covered him in a deafening silence. He could feel the hard scales of the dragonsnake, dragging roughly across his fur and flesh, scraping him and crushing him. His head began to sway as unconsciousness tugged at his senses. He reached out in the Force, trying to find purchase, and he brushed the mind of the dragonsnake; dark and primitive, it glistened like the moonlight on a wet rock in the midst of a cave. He reached out to it with the Force, pouring in all his fear, his terror, his panic, his weakness; he filled it with his own emotions, hoping at least to make it focus on him, make it avoid pursuing his friends. It seemed to work; the crushing weight of the dragonsnake slackened, if only a little.

Feldar felt his right arm come free. He suddenly realized that his right arm was his mechanical arm, and he had shielded it against water damage. If only I had made the same modifications to my lightsaber, he lamented as time seemed to slow. In a last-ditch effort, he pulled his arm free and slammed it home against the scales that held him. The dragonsnake's armor was hard, harder than anything Feldar had ever struck, and his arm rebounded from the blow--yet the attack had its desired effect! Overwhelmed with the terror of a drowning Chadra-Fan, the dragonsnake fled his blow and released him, disappearing into the depths.

Feldar felt himself floating, as though weightless; he wondered if this was what happened to Jedi when they died. Perhaps their spirits simply floated away, abandoning their frail bodies to the ravages of time. Then, just before he lost consciousness, his fur tickled him, as if wind was blowing across it--and four rough hands hauled him out of the water as darkness overtook him.

His eyes widened as Certh saw what had happened to the Chadra-Fan. Rushing forward, he slid on the wet, mucky ground, ending up next to the little being. Felicity was on the other side, and they grabbed him, hauling him up from the water that on Certh was already past the midsection of his thigh. Depositing the little guy on the ground, they rolled him so that Feldar was on his back and looking up at the sky. Or he would have, had his eyes not been closed. “Felicity, do you know CPR?” Certh asked, already getting his hands ready. "I know he's not human, but it might work."

“Kind of, but his species makes things…Wait.” Felicity said, as they heard a rumbling near them.

Though it quickly subsided, Certh turned, his attention grabbed by the danger that could potentially come back. Concerned for Feldar, Certh knew that if the animal came back and attacked, they'd definitely not be in a position to help the little guy. A sudden punch to the shoulder brought him back.

“What?” He asked, but she had closed her eyes, and he quickly realized what she was trying to do. She had stopped speaking earlier because of what she had realized, not because of the threat of the animal's return. Looking back over his shoulder, he knew that they potentially only had one shot with this. They had to propel the water out of Feldar’s lungs, using the Force, since neither of them knew how to work CPR with an a being such as Feldar. Definitely work that required finesse and subtlety.

If there was too much of a push, the water could cause serious harm to their friend. Well, more serious than the harm that he was in. There could be damage, after he woke up, since they didn’t know what was in the swamp water to begin with. The two of them concentrated, and with Feldar’s mouth open, the swamp water slowly began to bubble out, rising and cascading out of the hampered lungs of their friend.

After they were certain the Chadra-Fan's lungs were clear they stopped and leaned back. Such fine tuned control of the Force was not Felicity's specialty and she had to focus hard to match Certh's pace and not do any permanent damage to Feldar. The entire process was rather exhausting for her but another sound from somewhere in the distance alerted them to the fact that they didn't have time to rest.

"We need to get him moving," Certh said, lifting Feldar onto his back. He took a quick look around his surroundings and headed off in the direction towards where Feldar had sensed the Cultists.

Felicity followed close on his heels, her eyes on their surroundings expecting at any moment the dragonsnake would appear and attack them again. Fortunately, the giant lizard seemed to have lost interest in them and they had gone quite some distance before Felicity felt certain they were safe. Relaxing her guard for the moment she tried to focus on sensing where Darth Callidus and his followers were. So focused was she on the attempt that she didn't notice when a tell-tale sound warned her of danger.

Certh stopped immediately then reached out to grab her when she walked past him. Startled, Felicity spun on him intent on asking him why they stopped. Instead he silenced her with a finger to his lips. They stood there silently for a moment until they heard the sound again, this time recognizing that it came from directly beneath them. It sort of reminded them of the sound of collapsing metal and as soon as they recognized it they stared at each other.

"Crap," Felicity managed to say before the ground fell out from under them. They fell into a hole with dirt and mud falling on top of them. After struggling to the surface again they found themselves in a long, dark hallway. From what little light they could see coming in from the hole above them they could see walls of ancient steel lining the hallway and ceiling. Wherever they were it was obviously man made and very old.

Felicity got up and dusted herself off then turned to see how Certh was doing. Somehow he had managed to shift his body to shield Feldar from the fall and when she turned to look at him he had just finished digging himself and the Chadra-Fan out from under the mud. "I think we found it," she said, "I think we found what they were looking for."

“Definitely. I’m just worried that we’re up against more than we can deal with.” He replied.

“The Jedi who were sent to bring us back, they could deal with this, better than we could.” Feldar said. “Perhaps we need to try to convince them.” He added, looking at the walls as he started to walk forward. He gingerly placed a hand against one of the walls and looked at it. “We’re not equipped for this.” He said.

“Certh doesn’t have a lightsaber, and mine is...gone, so we are definitely lacking weapons.” Felicity admitted. “That’s not going to stop me though.” She said, stubbornly. “As for the other members of the Order, if they’re not convinced after what happened before, then I don’t think we’re going to have better luck trying again.” She said. “We’re between a rock and a hard place.” She looked at Certh and then at Feldar. “We’ve got to keep going.”

Felicity's apprehension grew deeper and deeper the further they walked into the darkness. At some point she could remember herself wishing someone had brought a light and almost immediately, as though in response to her unspoken question, Feldar's lightsaber sprang to life. The little rodent was awake and moving under his own power now which was a huge relief to Certh. Maneuvering in this darkness was hard enough without having to carry the weight of another. The soft hum of Feldar's lightsaber filled the silence between them and the weapon's brilliant blade illuminated the hallway. Looking around they could see panels and doorways unlike anything they'd seen before. Debris lined the hallway on either side and much of the facility was rundown. Looking around it wasn't hard to imagine why the ceiling had collapsed under their weight.

"This way," Felicity said, navigating more by instinct than by any notion of where they were going.

Eventually, the hallway opened up into a wider area. They couldn't see much from where they were but it appeared whatever room they were in was some kind of control room. They walked along a wide catwalk up to a second level where they found a large terminal. Feldar gave the machine one look and then flipped a switch on the far side of the terminal. Shortly after they could hear the whine of machinery powering up somewhere below them and almost an instant later the lights came on, revealing a vast room filled with intricate technology.

"This is Rakatan," Certh announced.

"Rakat-what?," Felicity asked, confused.

"Rakatan," he said again, "They're an ancient race that existed tens of thousands of years ago."

"Okay, I get it," Felicity said, prodding a small machine nearby with her finger. The machine was rundown and inoperable and her touch caused the thing to collapse, echoing loudly in the vast room. "Or maybe I don't," she said, "What could they possibly want with this junk?"

"Who knows," Certh said with a shrug, "but if the legends are to be believed the Rakatan new things about the Force and technology that were far beyond anything we know today."

"What do you think, Feldar," Felicity asked, turning to face the Chadra-Fan.

Feldar was a moment in responding as his eyes scanned a display on the terminal he was currently operating. "I don't think this is it," he said finally.

"There has to be something," Felicity said, "Why else would they come here?"

"There's this," Feldar said, hitting a switch on the terminal and then stepping back from the console.

At the far end of the room a massive door began to open revealing a small hangar just beyond. A lone ship occupied the space beyond the door, a small craft the size of a freighter but of a model they'd not seen before. "The coordinates are pre-loaded into the nav computer," Feldar told them, "All we have to do is power it up and it will take us right to it."

Felicity felt a moment of elation upon realizing that they had arrived here before Darth Callidus and his cronies. That meant they were one step ahead, maybe more. That elation disappeared quickly when blaster fire burned into the walls behind them. Felicity, Feldar and Certh all took cover behind the console as Callidus' mercenaries filed into the room.

"Guess our 'friends' have arrived," Certh said.

Felicity chanced a glance around the terminal, spotting Darth Kalos and Callidus stroll into the room behind their mercs. Then her gaze shifted to the lone star ship on the far side of the room. "Certh," she said, "power up the ship and get it ready to leave."

Then she turned to Feldar. "Feldar, upload whatever you can to the ship's database and then destroy this console."

"What are you going to do," the little rodent asked as Felicity stood up.

"I'm going to buy us some time."

"With what," Certh asked incredulously, "You're not even armed!"

"I don't need to be," she said then she jumped over the console and made a bee line for Callidus and his men using various computer terminals and debris piles between them for cover...

Certh didn’t need to be told twice. He had faith in Felicity trying to buy them time, and he could only hope that she would be successful. Running over to the starship, Certh saw one of the consoles and started pressing buttons. The controls were a bit foreign to him, but how difficult could it be? When nothing started happening, Certh let out a brief curse that his father wouldn’t have been too proud of, and kicked the console.

Feldar came running over and looked at the console. “I can figure this out. You get on board and start the preflight checks.” He said, and Certh nodded.

The half-Vahla made his way up into the ship and started the preflight checks. He looked up, as Felicity was thrown into view, flying backwards. It looked as if she’d been hit with something heavy and hard and she landed on the ground. His hands went to the laser cannon controls of the ship. It was possible that they’d need the firepower.

Feldar did not like the sound of Felicity's plan - as usual - but he did as he was told. Certh ran toward the ship, and Feldar stayed with the ancient console for a moment. The languages were foreign, but that was okay--he was good with languages, and patterns, and strange technology. He was not so good with combat, and he appreciated that Felicity recognized the roles they had to play. He tapped a few controls that seemed to talk about copying data; he got a report in the strange language. He took a moment to decipher what he could--either it said that the data had been transferred, or that it was already present on the ship's computer.

He drew his lightsaber and sliced through the console, sending sparks flying from suddenly-superheated metal and circuits. Then he dashed toward the ship amid a blaze of blaster fire; Certh was kicking and cursing at a console next to the ship that probably controlled the docking clamps. "I can figure this out," he squeaked, "You get on board and start the preflight checks." Certh nodded and left; Feldar wanted to warn him that violence and technology were not good bedfellows--contrary to popular opinion, kicking a device did not have a positive effect on its function.

Feldar tapped a few controls on this one, too; he had been right about its function. It controlled the docking clamps and bay doors. He opened the bay doors first; that was easy. To remove the docking clamps, he needed Certh to activate the repulsorlifts. Under normal circumstances, of course, the ship was designed to take off immediately after releasing the clamps--but he doubted they could trust the attacking mercenaries to release the clamps for them. The Chadra-Fan ran to the base of the ship's ramp and yelled up it, "Certh! Leave the ramp open, but activate the ship's repulsorlifts!" He retreated back to the console.

Certh either did not hear him clearly or was indecisive. He activated the laser cannon instead, sending a few ponderous blasts toward the attackers, over Feldar's head. The Chadra-Fan grimaced and ducked. His lightsaber was deactivated, but the hilt was in his hand; if it came to that, he would go down fighting, but he would really rather survive. He ran back to the ship's ramp. "Shoot later, lift now!" he squealed, "I need to detach the clamps now or we're grounded!" As Feldar returned to the console again, Certh must have gotten the message. The ship's repulsors came online with a hum, tugging against the docking clamps. Feldar tapped a few controls and released them, freeing the ship. It floated away from the ground, hovering about a meter up. The end of the ramp hung in the air just above Feldar's eye-level. He tapped a few more controls on the console, routing the main screen to a deeply nestled setting; even if the mercs knew the old language, it would take them a while to access the main docking controls. They would never be able to close the bay doors or activate some tractor beam--if there were one--before the Jedi escaped.

He ran to the ship and called on the Force to give him a boost. He landed roughly on the textured metal, and nearly slipped off. He clambered his way onto it securely, then clutched at one of the extended struts to pull himself up. Once he was standing on the edge of the ramp, he turned back to check on Felicity. Certh was firing the laser cannon again, and the ramp vibrated precariously with each blast. Feldar tried to yell louder than the melee, but he also reached out with the Force--hopefully Felicity would hear one or the other. "Felicity! Let's go!"

Felicity had tried her best to keep the enemy mercenaries occupied. What had started out as a gun battle eventually turned into hand to hand combat after she managed to close the distance with a little help from the Force. She landed amongst them and immediately began to use one of them as a body shield as she dealt with the others. Perfectly timed punches and kicks kept the mercenaries stumbling all over each other until an explosion picked up Felicity and her body shield and tossed them aside. Felicity struck a pile of crates hard and was stunned for a moment, but when she saw the mercs raising their weapons to fire at her she quickly leapt into action, closing the distance between them with a single, Force assisted jump.

Darth Kalos, watching the whole thing was impressed by the girl's tenacity. He discounted her because of her age but even so she displayed a surprising level of skill. Not many Jedi were able to hold their own in combat unarmed. Feeling an eagerness to join the fray he moved forward with his lightsaber in his hand. He ignited the red blade and took a swipe at her followed quickly by another backhand strike. Felicity danced gracefully out of the way of both attacks before grabbing a merc, twisting him about and then kicking him into the Sith. Both warriors stumbled backwards as the other mercenaries filled the hole. Then Felicity heard Feldar's voice.

"Felicity! Let's go!"

She looked up and the alien ship was hovering in the air and turning towards the exit. A merc grabbed her from behind while another tried to attack her from the front. She used the latter to push off with both her legs and free herself from the former's grasp before rolling backwards up onto her feet. That's when she saw her lightsaber clipped to Kalos' belt. With a quick flip of her wrist she summoned the weapon to her hand then ran forward to catch the fleeing ship.

"See ya," she threw back over her shoulder before leaping into the air after the ship. She miscalculated the jump by a few inches but managed to catch Feldar's outstretched hand. Unfortunately, the Chadra-Fan was not strong enough to hoist her up onto the boarding ramp. His grasp started to slip before all of a sudden Certh was at his side and together they pulled Felicity to safety.

Felicity turned to Certh, "Why are you... Who's flying the ship?"

Certh shrugged, "Apparently it's flying itself. Took off the moment I activated it."

They went inside the ship as the boarding ramp closed behind them and by the time they made it to the cockpit the ship had already left the hangar and was rocketing towards the sky. Felicity couldn't help but smile. "We did it! We managed to get one step ahead of them!"

"Somehow," Certh replied, "but where is this thing taking us?"

Feldar had a perturbed look on his face. "You're not going to like it," he said, "These coordinates, they're in the Core." Then he turned to look at the others, "We're going to Coruscant..."

**********

Moments after the ship had sped off into space Darth Kalos quickly got to his feet and fished out his communicator. He opened a channel to the ship in orbit and a moment later the ship's captain appeared as a little blue man above his palm. "Yes, m'Lord," the man said.

"There is a ship leaving Dagobah right now," Kalos said, "I want you to destroy it."

"Belay that," another voice said from behind and both the captain and Kalos turned to see Darth Callidus moving towards them. There was a moment of silence and he smiled. "Yes, good. I can feel the girl's potential."

The mental link he created with her a short while ago had strengthened his connection to her. With this he should be able to track her wherever she goes. "Have the ship prepare to depart," he said, "We will follow the girl and her friends and then we shall claim our prize..."

"This plan is insane," Myles said from his seat right behind Jonas. After the Jedi and his partner returned empty handed Jonas had initially planned on following the children to Dagobah when a much better idea occurred to him instead. Although, not everyone present was in agreement. The two Antarian Rangers didn't seem comfortable trusting their fate to luck.

"I'm going to have to agree," Rhea answered, "Our mission is to track the missing padawans and we're not tracking them from here."

'Here' being space and more specifically the small star ship they used to get here. After fighting their way back to the ship and detaching Jonas had his pilot evade the pursuing star fighters and then latch on to the underside of the ship. The plan was to follow the ship through hyperspace, which was just as likely to get them killed as it was to succeed... Perhaps even more so.

"I'm trying to piece this together with only a fraction of the information," Jonas said, "but it seems to me these Sith are following bread crumbs. First the Jedi Archives, then the Star Forge and now here? If here isn't the final destination then those kids will find the next location and lead them somewhere else."

"If they're not captured first."

"Or killed," Myles added.

Jonas shook his head, "I think they're a bit more resourceful than that. These kids pieced together clues that even our strongest masters missed and on top of that they've made it this far. Sure we may have helped them out a little but they broke themselves out of captivity."

"So they got lucky, they're still outgunned and out classed. I say we head down there and give them a hand."

Jonas understood Myles' sentiment but his gut was telling him to stay put. He learned to trust his instinct when the Force was trying to tell him something and he wasn't about to stop listening now. "No, we stick to the plan. We follow the ship through hyperspace and assuming we're not torn to shreds we'll link up with the kids on whatever planet we wind up on next."

There was some slight grumbling but the two Antarian Rangers kept their mouths shut. Jonas was the commanding officer on this mission after all. Any order he gave they had to follow but one person in particular had been surprisingly quiet during the whole discussion. Jonas turned to look at Mahanna. "Are you alright," he asked quietly...

**********

In the space above the planet Coruscant a small alien craft reverted from hyperspace on a direct course for the planet. It's occupants stared in awe at the galactic capital and its surrounding fleet of star destroyers. Coruscant was the seat of the Empire, formerly the seat of the New Republic. This planet had changed hands more times than Felicity could count and as the planet loomed larger in the view port she ticked off on her fingers as many times as she could remember the planet had done just that.

"Four times," she said after a bit, "Or five? I mean first there was the Republic, then the Empire had it, then we had it again and now the Empire has it again, but there was more before that too, wasn't there?"

"I don't think this is really all that important at the moment," Certh said as his eyes followed a group of TIE's flying in formation. None of the Imperials challenged them as they made their approach but that probably wouldn't hold out for long.

Feldar suspected the ship was designed to be difficult to pick up on sensors but they wouldn't be that hard to spot once they hit the atmosphere. "Where's the ship taking us," the Chadra-Fan asked.

Certh looked down at the console in front of him. "No idea," he said, "but there's definitely something down there."

"But how," Felicity asked, "People have been living on Coruscant for thousands of years."

"Living near the surface of Coruscant," Certh corrected her, "There are still levels upon levels of the city deeper down towards the planet's surface. Much of it hasn't been explored for centuries. There could easily be something down there that we haven't found yet."

"Assuming it wasn't destroyed during the construction," Feldar pointed out.

Even though she knew she shouldn't feel that way Felicity had kind of hoped it wasn't. After all of this buildup she actually kind of wanted to see what it was that Callidus and his cronies were searching so hard for.

Just then there was a jolt as the ship hit atmo and rocketed towards the surface. As Feldar had suspected it wasn't long before Coruscant traffic control challenged them. "Unidentified craft, please state your destination and cargo," a voice cut through on their communicator.

The three of them just looked at each other then turned to a nearby console trying to find a radio. "Unidentified craft, please identify yourself," the voice came again. Still the three companions scrambled but found nothing.

"I don't know what any of this is," Felicity admitted. Certh was just as lost as she was and Feldar had only been able to figure out bits and pieces of the Rakatan language. "What are they going to do if we don't respond?"

That's when they heard the familiar scream of a pair of TIE's fly past.

"That," Certh said.

Felicity was shocked. "They wouldn't!"

"They would, because they have no idea what we're doing or why and it's better to be safe than sorry."

As if on queue the voice from the tower cut in through the radio again. "Unidentified craft, this is your last chance. Identify yourself or you will be fired upon."

Felicity felt a lump in her throat. "This thing has shields right?"

"It should," Certh nodded, "but they're not going to last long if we can't get this thing off autopilot. See what you can do, Feldar."

The Chadra-Fan nodded and began typing furiously at the computer. Shortly after the first warning shots were fired, rocking the ship and nearly knocking the three of them out of their seats. Again they all looked at each other then Felicity and Certh turned to Feldar. "Hurry up," they both said in unison...

Mahana had been thinking about the last time she’d had a drink. But it wouldn’t have been a good piece of conversation to have with the three she was with. Especially since she was still not allowed to carry a lightsaber. “I’m fine.” The disgraced former Jedi said. “The problem your facing is that you don’t want to risk the kids but if they’re right the best chance we have of actually stopping the Sith is-“

“No, they’re not.” Mahana said. “One is the son of a member of the Jedi Council. One has the last name Sage so make of that what you will, and one of them…okay I don’t know that much about the last one. The point is that they’re all supposed to be Jedi, even if they’re just apprentices.” She said. “The Order makes all this talk about how we’re supposed to hold our own responsible and make examples out of a few, well, then let’s do that.”

“You’re not really advocating just letting them do whatever strikes their fancy, are you?” Myles asked.

“They could move mountains with their minds, Myles, if they thought long enough about it.” Rhea said.

“The lady has a point.” Jonas said. “They made the choice, we’re sent after them. We’re going to follow our orders.” He said. “Speaking of which, next time, Mahana, we move as a team.”

“Understood.” She said, biting her tongue, even though there was something else she’d wanted to say.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

The autopilot disengaged, and they all felt a sudden lurch as Coruscant’s gravitational pull started to grab a hold of them. They were far out, but the autopilot had already started compensating. Luckily, this move pulled them out of the path of oncoming laser fire, saving their lives as the shields weren’t up yet.

Feldar threw a few switches, and the shields came up, as Certh grabbed the controls in front of him, getting a stranglehold on what had previous been the commencement of a mild free fall. He turned and looked at the other two.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad.” He said.

There was a bump.

“There are still TIE fighters on us.” Felicity said.

“Right yeah. TIEs.” Certh said. “Now would be a good time for us to know where we’re going, yeah?” He asked.

Feldar tried in vain to suppress a squeak as the ship took another battering. The TIEs were much faster than their alien vessel, but they didn't have shields; he was torn between trying to figure out the navicomp and trying to find a weapons control. He opted for the former; if Certh didn't know where to fly, it wouldn't matter whether or not they could shoot down one or two TIEs.

After all, they were above Coruscant. If there was anywhere in the galaxy with an endless supply of TIE fighters, it was here. They couldn't afford to stay out in the open.

He tapped a few more controls. There were a lot of readouts, using a lot of strange characters he didn't know. He had pieced together a few bits of the Rakatan, but that was far from useful when the screen was filled with scrolling text. He ran his fingers along it, trying to move it further and reach the end--perhaps there would be settings there, or--

He saw an odd symbol in the corner of the screen; unlike the others, it was stationary. He pressed it, and a menu appeared; the scrolling paused. The menu seemed to be displaying options. The top half of the screen was in the same language as the scrolling bits, so Feldar skimmed it only, hoping he would see something he could identify. The bottom half of the screen listed more options, but each was in a different script--the fourth of these was some kind of rudimentary Huttese. He tapped that control.

Suddenly, the whole screen changed; all of the text was in old Huttese--except the selection Feldar had just pressed, which was in the Rakatan language. He cackled with glee, but he was interrupted by another shudder as laser fire blatted against their shields. He looked through the settings options again; this time, he could figure out what they meant. One said nawepogwa, something like visual program. He tapped it, and the screen faded for a moment; the text disappeared and was replaced by a visual scan of the planet below them. Their intended path--now off to the side as Certh swerved to avoid more enemy fire--arced through the moving image in green. "There!" Feldar said, "Follow that!"

He turned his attention to the important task of finding ship-board weapons. He moved to another screen; it had also changed to Huttese. He went through the menu again, this time selecting pankpapunyu, something like spaceship blaster. It presented a diagram of the ship, indicating where weapons emplacements were; there weren't many. This was evidently a shuttle of some kind, not designed as a combat ship. He tapped the indicator for the rear-facing blaster, and the screen faded--then brought up a HUD and virtual display of what the gun could "see." Controls appeared on the screen--one said crispo. Feldar tapped it, and the weapon spat a burst of red laser fire into the air. The TIE behind them--one Feldar had not even noticed--could not react quickly enough to dodge the single blast. The shot pierced the cockpit, and the fighter began to twist and spin as it tumbled toward the city below.

Feldar hoped no one would be standing in its way.

The other TIEs must have noticed the origin of the shot, because they did not pass by it again. Feldar began trying to select the other blasters. "Are we there yet?" he begged.

He ducked and weaved the ship through Coruscant's cityscape, narrowly missing buildings and traffic alike. The TIEs on their tail were relentless and they didn't seem to care to much about collateral damage. Felicity watched in horror as a stray blast overloaded a nearby power generator and sent ripples of energy into the air. The explosion had caught several civilian transports in the blast killing their passengers almost instantly. Felicity felt their lives wink out in the Force and nearly fell out of her chair.

"We have to stop this," she said, "Fly through there."

She pointed towards a maintenance tunnel that led deeper into the city's infrastructure. Certh looked at it and shook his head.

"Are you crazy?! We have no idea where that leads. I fly us through that and we could run out of space real fast."

Another blast from the TIEs shook the ship and nearly rocked everyone out of their chairs. Felicity quickly righted herself and looked back at Certh. "Well we can't stay out here. The longer this goes on the more lives are at risk!"

"Fine!" Certh replied and he dipped the shuttle down and right through the maintenance shaft. The ship just barely cleared the ceiling though a sensor dish on the top of the ship was knocked clean off. The TIEs hadn't fared quite as well, most of them had made it through fine but a couple had careened into each other and exploded against the walls.

Certh could feel sweat starting to bead on his forehead as the ship rocketed down the shaft. At some point the tunnel made a slight left and then a sharp right before opening up into a wider area. Service vehicles were busy working on a power junction as the alien vessel and a wing of TIEs blasted past them. Certh skillfully navigated the ship through and around large metallic supports as blaster fire continued to follow them from the TIEs trailing behind...

Certh was a decent pilot, but he was not one of the better ones in the Jedi Order, let alone the galaxy. Just keeping the ship on course in this hellish maze that Felicity had guided him into was a strain on his formerly considered formidable skills. Humbling in many ways was the work being done here by the padawans, but Certh kept that in the back of his mind as the rest of his head was fully tasked with keeping them alive. Weaving around construction beams and jutting out pieces of metal, he couldn’t help but spare a moment to think on just how all of this had been constructed in the first place. It seemed impossible, improbable, so beyond the stretch of a normal being’s comprehension.

Then again, to someone, anyone really, not from here, the idea of a planet that was really a city was baffling.

The ship fishtailed for a few moments, as he swerved to avoid an oncoming ship. Someone was crazy enough to try to fly in the path of a ship being pursued by Imperial TIE Fighters. Suffice to say, they were definitely on Coruscant. Only people on Coruscant could be that crazy.

Or Corellians. He wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to stop and ask.

He reached out and threw a switch, starting a dead spin spiraling downwards. This gave Feldar a few moments with which to use more of the blaster cannons at his command and more angles with which to employ them. The Chadra-Fan, realizing this was the motive behind the action, reached out himself, tapping multiple crispo labeled buttons.

TIE Fighters exploded in a brilliant display, causing shrapnel and mass panic wherever they fell. A necessary loss, but one that bought them the freedom that they so desperately sought.

“It looks like that’s it for right now.” Certh said. “Now…any ideas where we’re supposed to be going?"